Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Spring Break 2012 Part 3: The Rest Of It

Let's get this finished in three parts. I already told you about KOA camping and Carlsbad Caverns. Let me sum the rest of the trip up quickly. Cause we only camped three nights, so I can't make these posts longer than 3 parts.

Okay. We went to the Living Desert and Gardens Zoo in Carlsbad. Cause we were near Carlsbad and we decided to check it out. It's a great place to check out if you're in Carlsbad. I just wouldn't make it the reason to go there. It was fairly empty while we were there, so Biker Boy and the kids had the run of the place. Literally. Running. I was in charge of saying, "On your mark, get set, GO!" Here's a few photos with my random comments.

Javelina. Wild Pig. Oink. I hear that you don't want to meet one of these in the wild. Thankfully I haven't. Oink. Yum...makes me think of bacon. I love bacon.

Cactus and Yucaa. Dirt. Pretty much like our yard. Except it was landscaped better here.

Looking at the prairie dogs. They weren't fat like the ones at our local zoo. They looked like the ones that live next to the road 2 miles from our house.

Pronghorn. We saw a ton of these while driving south. They can jump really high, but won't jump over a fence that is lower than the height they can jump. Figure that one out.

Because there were budding trees and we don't yet have that in our section of the southwest. It just snowed here earlier this week.

Running. I did mention they were running, right?

Then we drove and drove (apparently through Billy the Kid country) to Valley of the Fire Recreation Area and State Park near Carrizozo. I hope I spelled that write right because I'm not going to check. It's pretty awesome. There's this huge ribbon of hardened lava that came up through the ground thousands of years ago. They call it "recent." The tenting area was amongst the lava rocks. There was a nature trail paved through the lava rock. We did it twice. The day we arrived and the morning we left. It was a wee bitty chilly camping there in our tent, but we made it. We just had to throw Scooter in the van really early in the morning because the kid had a cough that was keeping Biker Boy and I awake. And you know how I mentioned that the kids were super good at Carlsbad Caverns? Well, they made up for it. It's always interesting camping with kids. We had coughing, pee accidents, poop accidents, whining, and blood. It's the stuff memories are made of. Pee, poop,and blood. Oh and lots and lots of prickers and goat heads (very nasty prickers). We were constantly pulling them out of the dog's paws and out of ourselves. I even sat on one, it was not very pleasant. One other thing...while the tenting area was not near the real bathrooms with showers...all the bathrooms were pleasant and super clean for a camping area. The pit toilet in the tenting area was the best one I've ever been in. I even drove Chewy to the big bathroom (yes, drove...it was that far away from the tenting area...they put the real bathrooms by the RV people who have their own bathrooms)...where was I? Oh, I drove Chewy to the real bathrooms and they were super nice, super big, and super clean. Seriously impressive bathrooms for a camping place. And they must be nice if I'm mentioning them here. Not to mention that I had to visit them more than once with some certain children. Okay, let's get on with the photos and my random comments.

This was right above our tent. Sharp lava rock, cactus, and millions of prickers. Good times.

Hooray! Chewy finally biked all by herself on her two-wheeler at the campground the day after this photo. (On her 5th birthday!)

Yep, this would be right after I told Scooter "To Becareful On The Lava Rock." He scraped his face, arm, and leg when he jumped off some. His sister was delighted to put band-aids on him. I told him to think of his bloody injuries as birthday presents for his sister.

Our tent. Amongst the lava rock. And thorny bushes. It actually was a nice and quiet spot. Plus you could see just about every star in the sky because there was not any light pollution. Oh and no bears....there were garbage cans right next to the picnic table. That's new.

The nature trail through the lava. You are allowed to go off the trail.

Um, I think this was to show the landscape. Lava and more lava. Rough and ropey lava.

This would be the ropey lava. I think it's called pahoehoe. Again, I'm not checking the spelling, so feel free to correct me.

My lovely family reading on of the signs on the trail.

My sweet girl who has dinner all over her face (tomato soup). Her last day of being 4 years old. She was so proud of herself for being able to pick up Ranger when another dog was coming at us.

Cold morning, walking the trail. See the moon? Oh, I love my family. I could just give them all a big kiss.

More lava. And more lava. And more lava. It is pretty neat. Here we're exploring off the paved trail.

My kiddos and me. Just before I had to give a certain one a piggy back ride back to the potties. Can you tell which one?

Yep, another picture of flowering trees. Plus a bee. It was thrilling for me.

After our night in the tent. It was sunny, but still a little chilly. This was breakfast and my baby's 5th birthday! We packed up camp after this and headed home.

My kiddos, dog, and I. Biker Boy took advantage of the setting sun to get this picture. This is the "golden hour" for photos. And I'm usually the one holding the camera, so I was happy to pass it off to Biker Boy and let him take a photo of the kids and I.

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